While the urea-injection system won't come online until the 2009 model year, the kids over at Inside Line managed to smuggle an E320 diesel into the Golden State for testing. The seemed to like it quite well, calling it a better value than the E350, even with the $1K price premium over the gasoline model. But they…

It would appear even the mainstream media's got a bit o' irreverence left in it — even if it's only in the web pages of the Old Grey Lady. Here's the caption from one of the pictures from yesterday's slideshow on the new VW Tiguan concept on the Times web site:

Word came down last month that rival German automakers would horn in on Mercedes-Benz's Bluetec clean diesel program. Today, Audi made it official that such a hookup with DaimlerChrysler is forthcoming, with the first Bluetec engines arriving at Audi dealerships in 2008. Audi will still refer to its diesel powerplants …

Ze volks at Auto Motor und Sport report Mercedes wants to bring a mild-hybrid version of its S-Class to market by 2008 (see Reuters story here). The production model would be an offshoot of the S 350 DIRECT HYBRID and BLUTEC HYBRID concepts the company presented at the Frankfurt motor show in 2005. Those cars employed …